Pioneering new hybrid rocket technology

In 2015, brothers Adam and James Gilmour launched a venture-backed rocket company and set about developing hybrid propulsion technologies that would usher in a new breed of lower-cost rockets. Their mission: to provide cost-effective small satellite access to space.

Just a year later, Gilmour Space launched Australia's first privately developed hybrid rocket. By the time the company raised its first venture capital round in 2017, the team had found the “missing ingredient” that would make hybrid rocket engines work. While the majority of commercial rockets use either solid or liquid-fuelled engines, Gilmour Space’s hybrid engine combines a liquid oxidiser with a proprietary solid fuel.

Based in Queensland, Gilmour Space has attracted a number of international rocket engineers to the company and has agreements with leading space organisations such as NASA and the Australian Space Agency. The team believes humans are destined to live and work in space and has a goal to discover “the farthest edges of our solar system”.

Since launching its first hybrid rocket in 2016, Gilmour Space has achieved significant milestones to become a world leader in orbital-class hybrid propulsion technologies and has raised a total of A$87 million in funding.

With a successful large engine test in January 2022, Gilmour Space is on track to launch small satellites to orbit in the next 12 months. These Australian-made satellites have the potential to be used for detecting bushfires, monitoring crop health, and improving mobile and internet coverage from space. Looking ahead, the company hopes to deliver a rocket that can take humans to space by 2025.

With each new milestone achieved, Gilmour Space continues to be at the forefront of cutting-edge space technology, which Adam says is helping to put Australia on the map as a “very large player in the space industry”.